Last week was dive excursion week.  Monday the weather wasn't good.  It was
cloudy and cool.  Tuesday was cloudy and cool but cleared out around 6 PM.
The sky was clear above the flat lake.  The wind died and the water
reflected its death with extreme clarity.  The clouds to the west hid the
sun and shades of red were apparent.  Not the bold reds from warm sun but a
cooler red from a sun just moving across the equator.  It was almost a shame
to ripple the mirror finish with dive bubbles - but who would know?

Sherwood Forest is flooded trees at the northeast corner of Wazee Lake.  My
right ear was not clearing so I descended slowly leveling off at thirteen
feet.  The water, while clear, was dark.  White sand and lime rock along
shore are bright.  The trees below me are grey.  To the southwest it is
dark.  Still trying to clear my right ear I nick a limb with my fin then
chastise myself for damage to the underwater environment.  I ease down
clearing my ears occasionally glancing at the compass and correcting the
heading.  At seventy feet I hover for a minute near the ledge to stare at
the darkness below.  It's easy to clear now so I ease on down to one hundred
feet along a wall.  This is probably deep enough for today, I think, and
start ascending.

At fourteen minutes into the dive I'm at sixty-four feet.  The wall starts
to level off and there is a varied angle from maybe eighty degrees vertical
to level tapering gradually.  The stone on the slope was vibrant with color.
There was a bed of spotted light merle.  On the top of the slope the
brownish red trees began.  I hovered in the absolute stillness of the water
and watched the trees move to and fro.  It was now twenty-six minutes into
the dive and I'd moved between sixty and seventy feet enjoying the unusual
scenery.

From the start of the tree line to the top of the trees is maybe fifty feet.
I ascended slowly enjoying the unusual color coating the trees.  At
forty-three minutes I surfaced.  It would be dark before I finished packing
the car.

I used about 33 cubic feet of air.  The water temperature ranged from 38
degrees at depth to 41 degrees.  The ice has been off for a few days.

Dive Two:

This dive was at the same location.  It was earlier in the day but still
afternoon.  The wind had picked up a bit but it was nice.  I switched gear
around to take advantage of the dual valve setup on the ninety-five cubic
foot tank.  Switched the primary second stage and bladder inflator hose to
the other primary first stage and plugged the ports on the single first
stage I'd used the day prior.  This took a few minutes and then it was dive
time.

I'd hoped for vivid color like the day before but that was not to be.  My
ears cleared easier but I still descended slowly.  After 11 minutes I was at
120 feet along the same wall but in a different location.  All the color was
gone.  The dive was the standard quarry dive with trees and hopes of finding
something of value.  I search in a stair step pattern.  Ascend maybe ten
feet or so then swim for a while to see what you find.  After forty-four
minutes I was back at fifteen feet.

There is an underwater ridge south from the shore that separates a shallower
area from deeper water.  This area has numerous fish cages.  These are wood
structures about as big as a kid's playhouse and built like a log cabin but
with square lumber.  I crossed over the shallow ridge and into the fish cage
area.  No fish.  The water was warmer here, though, maybe by a degree or so.
This will be an area where the water will warm during the summer.

At fifty-four minutes it was time to end the dive.  The wind was gone and
the lake flat when I walked up the boat ramp and toward the car.  I used
forty-eight cubic feet of gas.  The temperature ranged between thirty-eight
and forty-two degrees.

Dive Three:

A day later at about the same time I'm back at Wazee getting the gear ready.
The only full tanks are my doubles so I take off the single tank adapter and
tighten the wing nuts on the band bolts.  I notice there is water in the
dust covers of the first stages and this concerns me as I attribute moisture
by the air inlet with regulator freezing.  I dry the ends hurriedly and
gear-up.  I'm fully kitted and notice my dive reel is missing.  Since the
key to the car is in the pocket of my woolies I decide to dive no deeper
that the length of the flag rope.  This probably was a good decision.

I'm on the west end of the lake where I've been many times.  It's easy to
walk down the relatively steep slope of the boat ramp to the sand covered
ledge and then out to the wall.  I enter the water and ease out over the
drop off to begin the dive.

Three days diving and three different equipment configurations.  First day
was single primary with a small, high-pressure, shorty.  The second day was
dual primaries on a low-pressure ninety-five.  Today it's high-pressure
doubles.  I probably did not need any additional weight today but I have
sixteen pounds with me.  I used twenty-six pounds yesterday.

In a couple minutes I was on the ledge at forty feet.  It's easy to see that
I'm grossly over-weighted.  With such momentum there was little point in
stopping, so I headed on down at some points pulling the dive flag under
with me.  You can always tell the new divers by the position of their dive
flags - underwater much of the time.  So here I am, newbie deluxe, sinking
like a stone thinking about the article in the dive magazine where the new
diver plans the deep dive and adds extra weight to get there quicker.  His
body was never recovered.  I make the executive decision to put some air in
my wing and slow my descent.  There is no benefit to becoming paranoid;
after all, I've carried too much weight on other dives.

I remember one dive when I found an aluminum ladder and several other dives
when finding anchors.  You just hang on to the weight and fill everything
you have with air.  Of course, when you go up a couple feet you rocket for
the surface, but that's why you have the dump valve.  You dump air and smack
into the bottom holding your treasure.  I should try to remember to bring
the lift bag with me.

There is a marker buoy at about one hundred feet.  My dive flag line is
around one hundred and ten feet.  I'm hovering at the base of the buoy
admiring the Scooby Do doll and Friends placed for divers viewing pleasure.
It's time to swim the wall and see what I can see.  I'm sorry that I forgot
the reel because with this much air in the tanks it would be a good day for
deep diving.

I'm swimming along at a hundred plus feet when I notice my regulator is
beginning to freeze.  Probably affected by narcosis to some degree, I pause
to decide if I need to switch to the backup secondary or wait for the
problem to go away.  A couple breaths later the answer is apparent and I'm
thinking I don't want to breathe off the same post as I've used for
inflating the drysuit.  Of course, there is no other option.  I'm also
thinking I don't want to loosen the harness and roll off a post, should that
become necessary.  Lifting my arms over my head and pulling the tanks might
cause my neck seal to leak and, God forbid, I might get wet.  Another
executive decision: I switch regulators.  The primary secondary isn't
leaking except when I inhale so I wait and fiddle with it then reinsert it
in my mouth and take another breath.  With no effort my lungs are full and
the regulator keeps going.  It's back to the backup.

I'm very glad I do not have my dive reel or I would be another fifty feet
deeper.  It's time to head up a bit though, just in case things get worse.
I start up the wall and in the first five feet realize that surfacing may be
much faster than I desired.  It's thirteen minutes into the dive and I've
crossed the hundred-foot mark going up.  Exactly one minute later I'm at
eighty feet.  I'm clenching the wing dump button in my left hand exhausting
air as fast as possible and at the same time the shoulder dump of the
drysuit is blowing air like a whale spout.  There are bubbles up the wazoo.
My right hand is holding the dive flag reel and I see the line as it falls
below me.  It's not my goal to rocket to the surface from a hundred feet
wrapped in the dive flag rope.

At seventy-nine feet air is expelled and the bubbles I just raced by are
again passing fast but I'm heading in the other direction.  I'm again
sinking like a stone.  At eighty-six feet I've added enough air to stop the
descent but am worried about regulator freeze.  No problem.  I stare at the
wall and get back to business.  After a casual four-minute ascent I was back
to the ledge at around fifty feet.  I'd emptied the wing in favor of using
the drysuit for buoyancy.  Hands were holding the reel and line so the dive
flag line is again controlled.

I swam along the ledge for ten minutes then ascended thru the trees to the
training platform and along the sand bottom until ending the dive in a bit
over an hour at the point of the beginning.  Somewhere in the trees I
returned to the primary secondary and it was problem free the remainder of
the dive.  No posts were shut down.  It was pretty ordinary except for a few
exciting minutes toward the beginning of the dive, at depth.  The computer
registered an ascent warning from ninety to eighty feet.

Stats: fifty-six cubic feet of air on this dive.  Consumption per minute was
higher by 25% over the first dive and even more over the second dive.  There
was still water in the primary regulator when I detached it from the post.
Water temperatures ranged from thirty-eight to forty-four degrees.  The
water is warming.

Pretty much an excellent dive excursion.  Wazee charges admission after
Memorial Day so it was less costly too.